EAT IT

All the time. Persistent cravings can lead to less then great food choices…..

So, when I grabbed a coffee at a certain Golden Arches while at the bus station….and they offered

APPLE PIES

2 for DOLLAR

AND they smelled sooooooo cinnamonly good….

ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

I knew to resist.

And I did.

Mom didn’t have time today so WE MADE YOU THIS BAKED APPLE PIE . Thanks, but no thanks, Micky D

But then there’s the trip homeward bound. I’m tired. My guard might have been a little bit down. I was hungry and home is still a while away. Pure curiosity compelled me to try the Grilled Chicken Sandwich on Artisan Roll

It wasn’t bad. I’m still not sure what made the roll artisan. I believe artisan has officially jumped the shark in the food descriptor world, though, if it’s on a McDonald’s menu.

And Egad that pie smelled good…..and for a dollar, one little, measly dollar that I had in my hand because the coffee was also only one little dollar….and it

STILL

smelled ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

So when the kid at the counter asks, “Apple PIE??????”

My head nodded in agreement, somewhat independently of my brain and better judgement. He rang up the order….the chicken sandwich had one bag and the apple pies (I would of had to had been more verbal to get only one.) had their own. Oh, that smell!

The chicken was good, the fries a disappointment – maybe it was BK that had the good fries? but no matter. I had a Little Apple Pie to go with the coffee.

applepieapplepieapplepieapplepieapplepie happy apple pie song in my head

Apple Pie and Coffee. What could be better?

Just around the corner,there’s a rainbow in the sky,So let’s have another cup of coffee,and let’s have another piece of pie.

Apple pie and coffee. Yes.

The coffee was good, maybe a little better then good. Not great, but really good.

And the pie.

The pie.

How could something that smelled THAT good, have so little taste whatsoever??????

I could feel it in my mouth, but there was no taste there. No too sweet, no too greasy, no tart or bad. Just no. Nothing.

If I hadn’t been able to SMELL it, I wouldn’t have known it was there at all.

How can something be all scent and no flavor and still be sold as a food item?

I was not at all tempted to eat pie #2……Maybe it was something in the artisan roll or the chicken or…..

But the bag it came in smelled so wonderful., like I always want those little car air fresheners to smell and they never, not even quite, do.

I carried the pie home, mostly because it smelled so pie.

I wanted to save the bag it came in. As it cooled, it smelled less

sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

Hmmm – heat activated scent. Just like my antiperspirant…….

The next day, when I made my Bengal Spice tea and the scent reminded me of apple pie, and I remember the apple pie in the bag. Why not give it another go? Maybe French Fries negate Apple Pies….a stretch, I admit, but still a possiblity.

I put the apple pie in the microwave to heat for half a minute.

My kitchen was suddenly a Great Bakery, where everything

smelled sooooooo cinnamonly good….

ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

Magic.

And the taste?

Still elusive. Non-existent. Not there. Nada.

I drank the tea as the so-called pie cooled, and for the next little while lived in the fantasy of having baked a pie because that’s how my kitchen smelled while I transcribed apple pie recipes and poems.

I had a dinner adventure set for the City. (By ‘the City’ I mean Boston).

One friend I knew, two new friends to meet.

It came together surprisingly easy – a couple of e-mails and we had a day, a time and a place.

Too easy.

Sooooo

I google a map, get on a bus and go.

Which is about when the plans started to unravel.

But I won’t know this for a while.

Not everyone has my cell phone number – and I have an old fashioned NOT-smart phone.

flip, not smart….

No Facebook,

no Twitter

no e-mail….

Just phone…..

I got to the restaurant early….natch

They let me sit at the Lounge and served me water.

When I asked about the reservation for four at seven, they said:

We have no such reservation

Hmmmmmmm……..

Just then, my phone rings.

It’s the friend of my friend and I can’t hear a word she’s saying because a police motorcycle goes by, sirens and lights. Then a police cruiser, also all sirens and lights. Followed by a fire truck and and then an ambulance…..

Sooo – friend of friend will be right there – there’s been a last minute change of plans…..

As I wait I realize I don’t know exactly what she looks like….did I mention I’m in

THE CITY?!?!

I’m in the City, waiting for someone I don’t actually know. I’m getting really hungry now, too. Should I go back to the South Station, grab a bite and get on the next bus out of town?

But who’s that? Friendly, quizzical…..could this be friendly friend of friend?

Two minutes later I have a new friend.

We walk down the street, stop at a place with tables on the sidewalk, talk and talk, order:

Golden raisins are made from WHITE GRAPES (DUH). Kishmish is another name for them made from a variety of large white grape. We almost definitely had Kishmish because they were HUGE. Sultanas may be so named because they were originally from the Ottoman Empire.

White grapes make lighter raisins.

And now on to Cauliflower.

The first time that I roasted cauliflower, oh so many years ago, it was for a soup. I had roasted the cauliflower and as it cooled my son and I ate almost all of it. I wrote a note on the recipe to roast 2 cauliflower when making the soup…because we’d eat one before soup. This winter, cauliflower has been so trendy that I never made snag of one at the mark-down bin.

At one point this winter, between the roasting trend and the drought in Cali, cauliflower were very pricey, indeed. The whole point of the cauliflower is it’s very not pricey-ness. Like it’s cousins, cabbages and collards, it’s meant to feed the masses. The hungry masses.People like ME!

When Cauliflower was common,. we ate a lot of it.

I had not one, but TWO ulterior motives for the leftovers.

Motive the first – find the roasted cauliflower soup recipe and make a single serve batch…

This Blushing Bunny:

One that is Welsh Rabbit ( or rarebit) with a can of tomato soup added

Campbell’s made soup good food; Andy Warhol made soup cans good art

Rabbits go back to Hannah Glasse

A modern edition of The Art of Cookery is titled ” First Catch Your Hare.” Very appropriate for the first Welsh rabbit recipe to be there, too! Even though we all know that hares and rabbits aren’t the same thing…

and then are one or two more, the way there is never ONE rabbit….

18th century ‘Rabbit’ Recipes

1747

To make a Scotch rabbit,toast the bread very nicely on both sides, butter it, cut a slice of cheese about as big as the bread, toast it on both sides, and lay it on the bread.

To make an English rabbit, toast the bread brown on both sides, lay it in a plate before the fire, pour a glass of red wine over it, and let it soak the wine up. Then cut some cheese very thin and lay it very thick over the bread, put it in a tin oven before the fire, and it will be toasted and browned presently. Serve it away hot.

Or do it thus. Toast the bread and soak it in the wine, set it before the fire, rub butter over the bottom of a plate, lay the cheese on, pour in two or three spoonfuls of white wine, cover it with another plate, set it over a chafing-dish of hot coals for two or three minutes, then stir it till it is done and well mixed. You may stir in a little mustard; when it is enough lay it on the bread, just brown it with a hot shovel.

“Toast a bit of bread on both sides then lay it on a plate before the fire. Pour a glass of red wine over it, and let it soak the wine up, then cut some cheese very thin and lay it thick over the bread and put it in a tin oven before the fire and it will be toasted and browned presently….You may stir in a little mustard.”

— Scottish manuscript, cookbook of Moffat family.

The Thirteen Colonies Cook Book, p. 238

1753

To make a Scotch Rabbit.

Toast a Piece of Bread on both Sides, butter it, cut a Slice of Cheese about as big as the Bread, toast it on both sides, and lay it on the Bread.

-1753. The Lady’s Companion. London. p. 264-5.(foodtimeline)

To make a Welch Rabbit.

Toast the Bread on both Sides, then Toast the Cheese on one Side, lay on the Toast, and with a hot iron brown the other Side. You may rub it over with Mustard.

-1753. The Lady’s Companion. London. p. 264-5.

To make a Portugal Rabbit.

Toast a Slice of Bread brown on both Sides, then lay it in a Plate before the Fire, pour a Glass of red Wine over it, and let it soak the Wine up; then cut some Cheese very thin, and lay it very thick over the Bread; put it in a Tin Oven before the Fire, and it will be toasted and brown’d presently. Serve it away hot with Sugar over it, and Wine poured over.

-1753. The Lady’s Companion. London. p. 264-5.

Or do it thus.

Toast the Bread and soak it in the Wine, set it before the Fire, cut your Cheese in very thin Slices, rub Butter over the Bottom of a Plate, lay the Cheese on, pour in two or three Spoonfuls of White Wine, cover it with another Plate, set it over a Chafing-dish of hot Coals for two or three Minutes, then stir it till done, and well mixed. You may stir in a little Mustard; when it is enough lay it on the Bread, just brown with a hot Shovel. Serve it away hot.

– 1753. The Lady’s Companion. London. p. 264-5

An Italian Rabbit.

Toast a Slice of Bread, butter it, put upon it a Slice of Cheese the Length of your Bread, Let that be toasted; then put upon the Cheese some Mustard and Pepper, then Parsley minced, and upon the whole some Anchovies, in Pieces, very thick, to serve away.

-1753. The Lady’s Companion. London. p. 264-5

The Welsh are not alone in this! Scotch, English as well as Italian and Portuguese. This is one well traveled rabbit.

Italian rabbit 15th century

Sooooo

when do rabbits become rarebits?

1852

No. 164. How to Make a Welsh Rarebit.

First, make a round of hot toast, butter it and cover it with thin slices of cheese; put it before the fire until the cheese is melted, then season with mustard, pepper, and salt, and eat the rarebit while hot.

Francatelle, Charles. A Plain Cookery Book. p. 78.

But that’s not the end of rabbits – rarebits and rabbits continue together through the centuries

1858

Welsh rabbit.

Welsh rabbit is made by melting cheese and adding wine and other seasonings.

Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book. p. 206.

I haven’t been able to fill in the 100 year gap between The Lady’s Companion and Miss Beecher (who is Catherine Beecher, Harriot Beecher Stowe’s sister), but this already became more obsessive/compulsive then it began.

“Our correspondence is closed on the subject of rarebit versus rabbit. We stick to “rarebit” because “rabbit” already means something else. We can only answer the controversy with a story. A stranger trying to calm a small crying boy: “I wouldn’t cry like that if I were you.” Small boy: “You cry your way and I’ll cry mine.”

I realize that the history or recipes and food isn’t quite the same as MY history with food and recipes, I’ve stared another blog for the historical things. Foodways Pilgrim will continue as my journey with food. But for the historical inquiry, The Backstory of Welsh Rabbit (or Rarebit, as the case may be) or What Did They Serve at the First Thanksgiving sorts of questions/stories/cool background, that will now be at Plays with Fire.

Cena in Emmaus – 1601 – Caravaggio at National Gallery, London

Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus (again) this in 1606 and now in Milan at the Brera Fine Arts Academy .How has the food changed – and why?